Bookish, Geekish & Writerly Things

Querying the Query

So I was sitting at my computer yesterday, whiling away my time researching publishers and reading through submission guidelines.

I have found a couple of publishers that I think may be a good fit for me and my novella. So now I wait agonizingly and anxiously for my manuscript to return to me, hopefully without too many red marks against it.

Yes, I’m imaging The Editor taking a giant red pen to it, much like my old school teachers did to my schoolwork back in the day.

Because I am absolutely certain that it how editors work.

Anyway…

It dawned on me. Why wait? I could start drafting my query letters now. Sure, I will have to tweak and edit to suit which publishers I choose to submit too, should my work be up to scratch, but surely I could at least get started? At the very least to take my mind off that giant red pen I am now envisioning, scratching its way across my pages. Yikes!

So, after a good couple of hours, I found myself staring at, what I believe, is quite a decent sounding query letter, coupled with an equally interesting synopsis.

I must admit, it was quite challenging to condense my story down to just a handful of paragraphs, but I feel I have done it justice.

So with that done and dusted, (for now) I shall go back to worrying over that giant red pen.